Look back, and ahead

Well, it's been a couple weeks since I blogged. We've taken almost that entire 2 weeks off for "fall break". We did school a few times (or activities that I deemed worthy of being called 'school'...a lot of our regular activities involve learning, so I count those as school days). But, mostly I've been trying to reclaim my house. My home has been lost to a mass of school projects, homemade christmas gift projects, and a very mobile baby (a 9 month old walker!) who enjoys creating the messes in the areas I just straightened. Also, I've been trying to tweek our schedule into something that makes us all happier and allows more freedom. I'll post what our new schedule is another day when I'm done working out all the bugs!

We attended a theater performance of The Velveteen Rabbit last week (it was great, performed by the Drama majors at one of the local colleges), as well as the state fair. We were able to find a friends entries into the fair, which was great. Oldest DD has decided she'd like to enter some things next year (a cooking project, and probably a sewing or knitting project as well). Younger DD was impressed with her friends rocket that was entered, and several other "building" type projects, so she may decide to enter something too. We also earned a Girl Scout badge while at the fair. We had soccer and dance and bowling league as well.

Since this will be our first week of school since the first week in October, we'll be doing a Review Week. Sort of refresh our memories on the things we've covered. We've been covering the Solar System (we've covered Sun, Mercury and Venus so far), and we'll be making a lapbook-our first-of the materials we've covered so far. I also found a great site with a printable review crossword puzzle (see links). We're also painting styrofoam balls and will eventually put them in order for a model (although, not to scale). I made some planet fact cards (http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dckgjg3n_22fj9wbd) for the girls to sort, and we'll probably also play a version of Planetary Jeopardy later when I have all the sets made (what I have so far is only Mercury and Venus). We've covered chapters 1-11 in Story of the World, and we'll be reviewing that and constructing a timeline-our first-of what we've covered so far. I just have to be sure to put it up high enough that the littlest can't reach it on his tippy toes, as he really loves ripping things down (the US map, and the skeletal system poster have been his mosts recent victims). We'll be reviewing everything we've learned about the states we've covered so far (this is my oldest DD's favorite thing so far this year, who knew she'd be so into US geography). We'll also be reviewing grammar, and math concepts we've covered so far this school year (just to make sure they "got it" and still have it!).

I did get some work done on my math materials. I got a set of addition and subtraction facts cards printed, and partially cut out. I'm going to work some more on them this afternoon, and then tomorrow move on to social studies materials again. I'm going to continue working on state fact sheets, and flag sheets to complete our US geography units (although, that will actually take us the whole year). If I have any extra time, I'd like to work more on the world map units I'd like to do, but since we won't be doing world studies until next year...those can wait if need be. I'm also still working on felt sets for the littlest and finger puppets. I scored a puppet theater (table top sized) on craigslist for cheap (it even came with the puppets for the story of Puss in Boots!). My kids were very excited.

I also hope we'll get in some Fall crafts this week. I'd have some silk leaves, and I'd like to paint a couple of the pumpkins we got at the corn maze and farm (they are on the mantle currently, but they'd look even nicer painted). But, I need to look for some more ideas!!

We'll be making food for our Girl Scout ceremony on Friday, and my oldest dd is on the "decorating committee" (there couldn't be a better task for her, seriously) so we'll be making two centerpieces to take with us. FUN!

Stay tuned for pics..... Happy Homeschooling!